1. Technical Field
The present invention embodiments pertain to data management and storage. In particular, embodiments of the present invention pertain to a system and method that store records by associating unique record information with a single instance of data commonly residing within one or more of the records. This reduces the storage requirements of the records since the common data is not repeatedly stored for each record.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Electronic records management systems are employed by various organizations or entities, and store a collection of data for each record managed by the systems. The records may be generated by various processes including business processes, where records generated by the business processes in the course of conducting business transactions may include various data items (e.g., process version details, terms and conditions, contract details, product information, customer or user information, etc.). Generally, the business processes repeatedly perform the same transaction for many different customers or users. Consequently, a substantial portion of data within the records generated by these transactions is common across transaction instances. Since the electronic records management systems store the generated transaction records, the same information is repeatedly stored for each record by those systems, thereby needlessly consuming additional storage space.
In addition, organizations revise their core business processes and records management policies in order to comply with regulatory requirements. These revisions generally increase the volume of electronic records that are generated (e.g., including records with common data) and placed into medium to long term storage, and tend to further contribute to the needless consumption of additional storage space.